A Cryptic Maze
by AnitkaQuad
Summary: JxS A story of love, hate, and all crazy details in between
1. memory

"_Nobody saw the owl, white in the moonlight, black against the stars, nobody heard him as he glided over on silent wings of velvet. The owl saw and heard everything._

_He settled in a tree, his claws hooked on a branch, and he stared at the girl in the glade below. The wind moaned,  
rocking the branch, scudding low clouds across the evening sky. It lifted the hair of the girl. The owl was watching her,  
with his round, dark eyes._

_The girl moved slowly from the trees toward the middle of the glade, where a pool glimmered. _

_She was concentrating. Each deliberate step took her nearer to her purpose. Her hands were open, and held slightly in front of her. The wind sighed again in the trees. _

_It blew her cloak tightly against her slender figure, and rustled her hair around her wide-eyes face. Her lips were parted..._"

A.C.H. Smith


	2. chapter 1

Chapter 1

Sarah sat on the edge of the window seat, looking out into the upcoming storm. The clouds had overcast the skys, and the trees danced vicously in the wind.

She looked down at her journal and began to flip through the pages. Pictures of gossamered gowns and frolicing creatures she had remembered from the labrynith flashed by.

"_it's been 4 years, but still it haunts me_" she sighed.

**SLAM!**

Sarah jumped and turned to see her roomate breathelessly standing near the door.

"Its going to be quite the storm out there, all the radio stations are issueing a warning to move to the..."

Sarah had turned her attention back to the window.

"Sarah!" her roomate snapped,"Didn't you hear me? WE have to leave, everyone is meeting in the basement"

Sarah climbed out of her seat and focused back onto reality.

"Im going to go get Allie and Joan, Can you make downstairs yourself"

"Ofcoarse i can, i meet you there." But her reply wasn't heard, for her roommate had already left.

Sarah gathered up a few snacks and things to do before heading to the door. The wind was screeching through the windows on the end of the halls, and there was no sign of any of the others to be found.

_'They must all have left already_' she figured.

On the ground floor the she found that the front doors were opened, and to her horror a child's cry was heard coming from outside. She glanced towards the basement door,

but it reminded her of Toby, it sounded like Toby.

'_Toby? No it he's at home...' _

_'Sarah!! Where are you Sarah! Help me please!!'_ the child cried

Her heart sank to the floor as she declared "Im coming Toby"

She walked out the doors, wind beating against her body fiercely. Turning her soft hair intowhips against her skin.

In the middle of the courtyard, there was a small dark buddle laying on the ground. '_Toby_' Sarah ran and picked up the small child, who couldn't have been more than three years of age, and held it close. Slowly they began to make their way back to safety.

"its ok Toby, im here, don't be scared"

the buddle began to cackle and grow larger in her arms

Sarah screamed and dropped the monstrous creature. "No!" she hissed as she started to turn and hurry back towards the safety of her building. But as she tried to make her escape a

tree toppled over seemingly from nowhere towards her. She brought up her arms to shield herself from the branches heading her way, bracing for the crushing impact that was sure to

come. It never came.

Instead she felt two strong hands encircling her waist. She looked down in disbelief and turned to see an all too familiar face looking back at her. "NO!" she screamed, more for herself

then for any hope of someone coming to help her.

"Hello Sarah" said the Goblin King, his dark smile sending a shiver up her spine.

"NO!" she cried, "I don't have time for this! There's a storm coming"

She struggled to free herself from his grasp but it held firm.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her eyes looking into his begging for answers.

After a few more minutes of her struggling he released his hold on her and stepped back. She looked in awe at the powerful figure that stood before her. He had remained the same as

she remembered, not aging a day from when she had seen him all those years before. His hair and cape fluttered in the wind, his attire resembling what he had worn when they met in

the room of stairs.

"This isn't real" she whispered.

"Oh, but it is Sarah." He replied.

"You're not real!" she practically screamed, as if denying his existence would make it all go away and return her to the safety of her room.

"Let us not play around with childish games, Sarah." His smile faded and with but the twist of his hand a black notebook appeared.

"MY JOURNAL!!" Sarah cried in torn between cold disbelief and burning anger.

"I find it interesting, dear Sarah, that you still have you mind set on these so called fairytales and dreams" Jibed the darkly handsome man as he carelessly flipped through the precious pages.

She reached to take it from him but he pulled it back from her without a thought.

"Especially at your age," he quipped, "I would have thought you'd have grown out of these things by now."

She looked down at her feet and cursed to herself '_Why did I even bother writing in that thing to begin with?_'

"Then again," he pondered, "you've always seemed to be the exception to the rules, haven't you?" he raised a brow and looked at her vampishly, causing a pit of dread to well in her

stomach at the trouble she knew was coming.

"Why are you here Jareth? Im not interested in any more of your games"

"What games? "He closed the book and it disappeared to some hidden place that only he knew. "To put it simply dear Sarah, I'm here to steal back what should have been mine by rights years ago"

The air grew thick; anticipation at the pause before the word dreaded; the word she knew in her heart of hearts would next come from his lips. "You"

"You're insane!" She pleaded, "You can't steal a person! People will know! They'll notice I'm missing!" She knew her arguments were hopeless, but she couldn't just give up, surrender to him.

"Oh really, Sarah, and what, might I ask, could anyone do about it?" He smirked. Sarah looked away, trying hard to find some flaw to his reasoning, some solution that would allow her to escape.

"Come now, Dear, we can toss this back and forth as long as you want, but you know as well as I do that it will be futile"

He closed the space between them almost instantaneously and grasped her tightly. She tried to push him off though she knew there was no way she could succeed. His warm breathe

touched her ear in a seductive caress that made her shiver,

"If I have to I will haunt you. Threaten you. Hurt you and all the ones you love." He kissed her neck with a gentle heat that took her breath away,

"For you see Sarah, I'll do whatever it takes to make you mine, make you pay for the pain you caused me." She took a sharp intake of breathe as he grabbed hold of her jaw with one

hand and forced her to look at him. "My Sarah" he pressed his lips against hers. For one brief moment, Sarah was lost in a sea of blissful warmth emanating from her mouth and

spreading through her entire body. She began to fall limp in his embrace as the kiss deepened, but as he began to lower his hand from her waist, the reality of the what was happening

came glaring once again into focus. She opened her eyes and looked at him with distaste and malice as she quickly slashed her nails against his cheek. Jareth drew back in pain and

surprise at her sudden resolve as his hands released her head only to grab hold of one of her wrists. He drew his free hand across his face and looked at his glove to see that blood she

had drawn with her attack. Fire blazed in his eyes as he tightened his grip, making her cry out from the sudden pain. "You'll regret that" he said coldly. A trail of lightening lit up the

courtyard, and with that, they were gone.


	3. Chapter 2

Disoriented and confused Sarah laid on the ground, eyes shut. Challenging her memory to be a dream.

The air was warm, the ground was dry.

She lifted her head and began to look around. She was atop the windswept hill overlooking the labyrinth.

_'It can't be'_

She pulled herself up and dusted off her jeans.

_'The labyrinth...'_ Though its been years, it felt fimilar, like returning home.

"Welcome back" She turned to find several steps behind her was Jareth. Dark glittery cape and all.

"Wha? Why I am here? I defeated this already, Toby was....Toby!" Had Jareth decided to take his revenge out on Toby? "Did you take him again?!" she walked threatening toward him,

he took a step back. "Stop!" He raised the palm of his hand to her, "You won your brother's freedom from me, I cannot touch him, but you never won back yours"

"What do you mean"

"The night you wished your brother away, you also wished for someone to take you away. And so i did, and you still belong to me"

"What does that mean? I have to run the labyrinth a second time?" "You have that choice, but i warn you sarah, It's changed" He turned her to face the labyrinth which was now

overcast with black thunderous clouds and the landscape itself seem emanate a sense of despair and hopelessness. For the first time, in a long time, Sarah felt scared, she hated

herself for it but something in her knew this was real. Jareth was at her side now, smiling, for he saw the doubt in her face.

"Its grown, _like you"_he mischievously glanced at her"the dangers are real, and i wont be there to help you along"

"You weren't there the first time!" she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"I don't give this oppertunity to everyone, but you are just as welcome to refuse it"

"and remain your prisoner forever, no thank you, ill take my chances in the labyrinth"

"Very well, you have thirteen hours in which to complete the...."

"I know, i know" she began to walk down the hill towards the gates.

"Sarah" she turned quickly to look at him, " do be careful" he chuckled as his figure began to fade.

"What a drama queen, egh, king" she laughed to herself as she approach the entrance.


End file.
